The pawns in a party-switch

Sen. Arlen Specter’s party switch set off tremors on Capitol Hill. But history suggests that his staff may suffer the most.

Party affiliation is more than simply an R or a D after your name: In terms of the workplace, nothing in corporate America compares with this overlap of the personal and professional for thousands of Capitol Hill aides. It is a nebulous mix of individual ideology, familial or religious upbringing and, in some cases, opportunism. Stunned staffers — like children of divorce or fans of team switcher Johnny Damon — are in for an intense period of career tumult and twisted loyalties. Some may lose old friends while gaining new friends on the other side of the aisle. Others may leave politics altogether.

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“Party switches sometimes have the most implications for staff, who suddenly must weigh sharp questions of political philosophy, personal loyalty, job prospects and relationships — all in the course of just a few hours or days,” said Eric Ueland, the onetime chief of staff for former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. “It’s a tough, miserable, difficult, horrible time for staffers of switchers.”

Vermont Sen. Jim Jeffords hemorrhaged committee staff, received death threats, and had bags of nickels and dimes sent to his office by angry voters — the proverbial 30 pieces of silver for the defection that changed the Senate balance of power in 2001. Rep. Michael Forbes, a New York Republican who became a Democrat in 1999, lost most of his angered staff — they dumped their ID badges and left behind letters of disgust on their way out the door.

Susan Boardman Russ, Jeffords’ chief of staff, remembers walking the hallways of the Senate eight years ago seeing people she knew were toast — and they didn’t know it yet, because Jeffords’ move was still a secret.

Russ estimates that hundreds of people were affected by Jeffords’ move.

After spending nearly two decades in GOP social circles, Russ said her long-standing friendships began to dry up. Republicans lost gavels and had their office budgets diminished, and Jeffords, then the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, quickly lost a ton of staffers at the committee.

“My old friends weren’t hateful to me; we just no longer communicated. It just stopped,” she said. “The Democrats welcomed me with open arms, but after years on the other side, it was still strange.”

The guilt trip was heavy for Russ because staff careers and personal identities were on the line.